Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II (also known as Wizards and Warriors II: Ironsword) is a platform action-adventure video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which was developed by the British company Zippo Games, a subsidiary of Rare. The game was published by Acclaim and released in North America in December 1989 and in Europe on March 27, 1991. It is the sequel to Rare's 1987 title Wizards & Warriors. In Ironsword, the player controls the knight-warrior Kuros as he ventures into the land of Sindarin. He must defeat the evil wizard Malkil, who has taken on the elemental forms of earth, wind, fire and water. Kuros must collect and assemble the pieces of the legendary IronSword to defeat Malkil, who lives at the top of IceFire Mountain. Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II was developed by Zippo Games founder Ste Pickford and was the first game he developed for the NES. Steve Hughes was also involved in development, while Rare's video game composer David Wise handled the music and sound. Pickford wanted to expand on the previous Wizards & Warriors game. Pickford had experience developing computer games and used various animation and graphics techniques to demonstrate the NES's graphical capabilities. Additionally, Acclaim hired Italian male model Fabio Lanzoni as Kuros on the game's cover. The game was fairly well received, selling 500.000 copies in North America and 50.000 copies in Europe. Various video game magazines praised Ironsword for its size, graphics and sound, detailed characters and bosses, and gameplay. Other reviews criticized the lack of originality compared to other games released at the time. The game led Zippo Games to develop additional games for Rare on the NES, such as Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warship and Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros: Visions of Power. Ironsword received the Game Player's NES Excellence Award from Game Players Magazine as one of the better NES titles of 1990.
Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II is a platform video game in which the player controls the famous warrior Kuros while exploring the land of Sindarin to defeat the evil wizard Malkil. This time, Malkil has taken the form of the four "elementals" based on the classical Greek elements - earth, wind, fire and water - to stop Kuros on his quest. The goal is to assemble the legendary "IronSword" - the only weapon Malkil can defeat - and defeat the evil wizard who sits on top of IceFire Mountain. In the game, players can move Kuros left or right, or squat down using the control pad. Kuros can use the buttons to jump, defeat enemies with his sword or a spell, access the “magic spell screen” or pause the game. Kuros has a life meter that decreases every time he takes damage from an enemy or dangerous projectile, or if he falls too far. Along the way, players can collect and brew chicken to replenish Kuros' life gauge. Kuros loses a life when his life meter expires, and the game ends when he loses all of his life. However, players can continue and restart the game if they have stopped up to twice. The continuation feature is usually disabled after the player completes the earth domain. However, due to an error in the game, the player immediately loses the continuation function if he just enters the domain. Kuros battles the game's first boss, the Wind Elemental. In developing the game's bosses, Ste Pickford tried to fill as much of the screen as possible and use as few moving sprites as possible. Iron Sword: Wizards & Warriors II consists of four levels, which are called "domains" and are each named after the four elementals. In each domain, Kuros must find a golden artifact that belongs to the domain's “animal king” and return it to him. The path to the second part of the domain is then displayed. In the second part, Kuros has to find the spell that is necessary to defeat the boss - the elemental of the domain. Without the spell, it is impossible to harm the boss or even stay in the room with him. As soon as the elemental has been destroyed in each level, Kuros receives a piece of the iron sword, which is needed for the final battle on the Icefire Mountain. During the game, players must collect items, spells, and money in order to progress. Money helps with the purchase of spells, more powerful weapons, shields, helmets, keys to open locked treasure chests, and additional food. Treasure chests - located during the game - can contain any of the following items: extra money, spells, or weapon and armor upgrades. In each domain, players can visit inns where they can buy groceries, keys, or items.
In the game, magic spells help against enemies and elemental bosses. Some are bought, others have to be found. The magic spells include "The familiar magic" that turns enemies into money and helps to regain golden objects, the "Dragon's tooth spell" that turns enemies into food, the "Veil of the slumber spell" that slows down enemies, the "Silver fleece" spell , which makes Kuros temporarily invincible, and the "gargoyle spell," which creates an upwardly directed column of water that allows Kuros to reach heights. Each spell has a limited number of uses before it disappears from the player's inventory. Other spells are necessary to defeat the elemental bosses. These spells are in each of the four domains and include Windbane, Blightwater, Firesmite, and Earthscorch. These spells can only be used in the appropriate levels in which they are obtained and each one consumes magic when used. Players can get additional magic by collecting small floating gold bubbles that appear randomly or are triggered by the player's proximity to secret locations. Players can also increase their score by defeating enemies or collecting items. Hidden along the way are the “Relics of Sindarin”, which are worth many points when you collect them; These consist of a book, a cross, a glove and a ring. At the end of the game, players with a sufficiently high score can enter their names in the "IronSword Hall of Fame". However, the list is reset when the console is turned off. The game also includes a password feature that allows players to use the Magic Spell Screen to obtain a password that will allow them to continue playing at a later time, even after the console has been turned off.
Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II was developed by the UK-based computer game company Zippo Games under the direction of Ste and John Pickford. This was the first game Zippo developed for the UK-based video game company Rare. At the time, Zippo Games had just finished a previous game called Cosmic Pirate - a game released by Palace Software and released in 1988 for the Commodore 64, Atari ST, and Amiga. New to the tech features of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Pickford brothers visited Rare and were happy with their NES library, even though they thought they would pull away by deciding to develop games for the console. Ste Pickford: "The NES seemed primitive by comparison, Sub-Commodore 64. But the games were ten times better than anything published for home computers, which we appreciated and we wanted to try and make games as good as that." "" Rare decided to hire Zippo Games to develop this sequel to Wizards & Warriors. Commented Pickford, "Rare showed us Wizards & Warriors and asked us to develop the sequel and pretty much left it to us." Rare felt that Zippo Games was trustworthy enough to develop the sequel without much help from them. Development began in early 1989 when the Pickford brothers were still learning about the NES and its capabilities. As a newcomer to console video game development, they also learned about the market as well as Nintendo's game guidelines and restrictions. Because the graphics in most of the NES library games were poor, they placed an emphasis on graphics and animation. Pickford was particularly pleased with the animation of the enemy eagles and their movement. Rare added the sound and all the background music for the game was composed by video game composer David Wise, who, according to Pickford, "did a fantastic job at IronSword." In terms of gameplay, they tried to expand on the predecessor by introducing more adventurous gameplay and additional RPG elements such as magic, inns and money.
Ste Pickford developed the gameplay map for Ironsword. According to him, he was basically copying the map used in a Ghosts' n Goblins conversion port that he had developed a few years earlier. [4] In addition, the Pickford brothers tried to resemble Ghosts' n Goblins and similar games from Capcom in order to earn the rights to develop the game from Rare. For the map screen, Ste Pickford used certain character data in the ROM itself, used the font from a different location in the data that was inserted separately, and overlaid the floating heads of the elementals over the top of the graphic. According to Pickford, “The graphics job was always 30% drawing and 70% fiddly technical stuff (which is why so many terrible artists - people who couldn't draw at all - were decent video game artists back then if they could get the technical side of the game Managing things well enough). “When developing the game graphics, Ste Pickford translated black and white sketches into the game's character cards. It was planned for the bosses to use the entire screen and to use as few sprites as possible "in order to deceive the player that the whole thing is alive". The same thing happened with the "Dragon King", who was not one of the bosses of the game. The dragon's head and neck were made up of sprites, while the rest of the body was viewed as part of the background. The kite's neck was stretched vertically due to the horizontal constraints of the NES hardware sprite. The animation of the eagle (the "eagle king") carrying Kuros to the wind elemental was one of Ste Pickford's first graphics he drew for the NES. It was created in Deluxe Paint for the Amiga with sketches using the mouse - without the support of graphics tablets or other scanners. He took eagle drawings from a book on moving animals by Eadweard Muybridge.
Pickford wanted to demonstrate the possible graphical capabilities of the NES; He said, “I wanted to do something 'flashy' at the start of the game and try to put my amazing graphics skills to the test on the rather primitive NES. We were working on Amiga and ST games at the same time, so we always tried. ”From the beginning of our work on the machine, push the NES with bigger and better graphics. “The eagle only consisted of three colors and between 11 and 17 sprites per animation image. There was a smaller version of the same eagle that was used as a regular enemy in this level. The development of the game's title screen was inspired by loading screens that were used in most computer games at the time. The goal was to make good-looking graphics while waiting for the game to load, although the NES, more rooted in arcade traditions, didn't need it. Pickford spent most of his character space on the cover picture; The number of colors available was limited due to the NES's more limited graphics capabilities (as opposed to most home computers) as it was designed for scrolling and animating rather than stationary graphics. The sword in the title screen used character sprites and a different palette than the picture of Kuros himself; The sword had to be vertical as the NES hardware didn't allow too many sprites to be horizontal. Pickford planned to use its own iron sword logo and completed it when Acclaim got him to use the proposed logo. He said it was "a bit more bland and blocky, with details that didn't work very well with such a low pixel resolution."
Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II was first introduced in North America in 1989 at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, and featured with other games to be released by Acclaim later that year. It was mentioned as a future game in the May 1989 premiere issue of the video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly. It was also featured in the May 1989 premiere edition of GamePro. Finally, it was featured by Nintendo Power in its July-August 1989 edition. For the cover of the game, Acclaim hired the Italian male model Fabio Lanzoni as Kuros. Fabio was presented on the cover with a naked torso and without armor. When Zippo Games saw the picture of the cover a week before its release, they were at a loss. According to Ste Pickford, “our jaws hit the ground when we first saw this image (which was just the developers, probably about a week before the game was released). Why on earth did you choose a photo of a barbarian shirtless? to promote a game with a knight in shining armor? ". Pickford added that "we used it as an example of Americans' lack of imagination," while suggesting that an actual suit or armor would be too expensive to use on a photo shoot. Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II was published by Acclaim for the NES in December 1989 in North America and 1991 in Europe and Australia. It managed to sell about 500.000 copies in North America and about 50.000 copies in Europe. After the game was released, Zippo Games would develop its next game for Rare, Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship; They would eventually release the third installment in the Wizards & Warriors series, Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros: Visions of Power. The television commercial featured a boy playing the first Wizards & Warriors game when a Conan who looks like a barbarian walks into his room after defeating a monster and giving him a copy of Ironsword. After describing the short storyline and showing brief clips of the game, the Conan lookalike leaves his room and exclaims: “The fate of the world is in your hands! Back, hideous beast! ”. At the end of the commercial, after briefly playing Ironsword, the boy opens the door in his room and finds his dog, who now has smoke from behind.
Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II was originally reviewed and received positive reviews in the June 1989 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. Steve Harris said the game is very big and extensive and that it is "so big and has so much to offer that most competitions pale in comparison". Ed Semrad called the game "a worthy sequel, fortunately better than the original," noting the size and difficulty of the game. Donn Nauert appreciated the game's good graphics that compliment the adventure theme, but noted that some of the precise movements required in different areas can lead to frustrations in gameplay. Jim Allee praised all aspects of the game, saying, "If you like Wizards & Warriors, you'll love Ironsword." All four reviewers praised the game's gameplay and graphics. The game would also be featured in the September 1989 issue of the magazine, in which it was named "Game of the Month" for the magazine. The cover also featured the boxing style of the game with Fabio. The reviewers, the US National Video Team, found the game superior to its predecessor as well as other games released at the time, and found it to be particularly better than Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. They praised the detailed and thoughtful graphics, the inclusion of well-drawn big bosses and supporting characters, the sound that "has an eerie tone that sets the mood for the whole game," and additional features that add to the predecessor of the game. They concluded that Ironsword was "one of the most welcome Nintendo Entertainment System games in a long time". The game was also one of the featured games in the November-December 1989 issue of Nintendo Power, where it received six pages of coverage and included a poster of the game. Game Players Magazine awarded Ironsword in 1990 the “Game Player's NES Excellence Award” as one of the best games for the console.
The game was also featured in the British magazine Mean Machines in May 1991. Matt Regan said he wasn't impressed with the game. Similar platform games like DuckTales and Gremlins 2: The New Batch are superior to Ironsword and have a more original approach to gameplay. He also criticized the fact that players cannot hit enemies in the air. However, he noted the game's good gameplay. Julian Rignall also said that the game was fun, but it wasn't spectacular. However, as Regan noted, Rignall said the game doesn't offer anything special like better titles like Mega Man 2 or Super Mario Bros. 2. However, he noted the game's good graphics and challenge, although both noted the backgrounds "are slightly boring". Both reviewers said the game was well presented with good introductions and a password mode, easy controls, fair challenges, and "pretty good tunes and effects that fit the action well." Overall, they said that Ironsword is "a fun but ultimately limited game that will appeal to platform fans." Iron Sword: Wizards & Warriors II was ranked #64 on IGN's "Top 100" list NES gameslisted. Reviewer Sam Claiborn said that the game was more comprehensive than its predecessor and that it contained many of the good graphics, gameplay, and use of Middle English. He also noted that "Fabio's bare chest smolders on IronSword's cover art, making this game a hit with kids and moms." Website GamesRadar praised the game's music, particularly the title theme; Brett Elston said it set a serious tone for the game, saying "its heavy, booming beats mix with an imaginative melody that makes it sound like a Shire dirge." The game's cover art, which features Fabio, was covered in detail by many gaming websites. IGN listed Ironsword as one of the most notable covers in video game history and listed its cover as the second best of all time behind Ninja Golf. Conversely, 1UP.com listed Ironsword as one of the worst covers of all time, comparing it to the cover for Mega Man. GameSpy listed it as the fourth worst video game cover in history, saying that "thanks to Fabio's presence on the cover, players were left confused and thinking they had accidentally picked up one of their mother's romance novels." In a retrospective of the NES marking the console's 25th anniversary, Nintendo Power wrote that "the game's quality will forever be overshadowed by Acclaim's choice of Fabio as the cover model."
Originally posted on 2021-01-18 16:05:00.